Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters WW 571 ball powder

I got a full can of this in a box of stuff I bought. I can't find anything in load manuals about it and I can't even prove it's existence on a google search I did. It says shotshell powder on the can. I am wondering if it has any uses for the .357 Maximum cartridge?

Moose,

I have several old WW manuals, checked and found loads for .38 Sp, 9mm, 10mm, .45 ACP and 40 S&W, but no .357's.

Correct that its an older shotshell/pistol powder. I Have an old WW reloading book someplace around here I used for years when I loaded with 571.

Mike,

I have several old WW (Olin) books. I have duplicate #13. If you PM me your mailing addy, I'll mail it to you. As previously stated, it has data for several handgun cartridges, but NOT .357 Mag.

As you may know, some years ago, most of Hodgdon's ball powders were manufactured by Olin Corp. I have read that #571 was the same as Hodgdon HS-7. I looked it up in Propellant Profiles , and it appears to be very similar if not the same.

If it is anything like Hodgdon's HS-6, It is a very dense powder. I had a bad experience with HS-6. One can load double charges in .357 and likely even triple charges. I would suspect that is why they do not recommend it in .357 Mag. I remember trying HS-7 years ago and rejected it because it was extremely dirty.

IMHO, the best use for Olin (W-W) #571 , is the use that it was intended for; and that is Heavy loads in 12 and 20 gauge. HTH - GH

I have used it very successfully for heavy field loads in 16 gauge and have about 8 # stockpiled for that use.

I use it in my 38 Super with heavy bullets.

It's hard to beat for Magnum 12 gauge loads. It will clump up in machines if left for some time and therefore isn't the easiest powder to work with. Have also heard of hangfires in heavily compressed loads.

W571 and HS-7 are the exact same powder. Handgun data for HS-7 is easily found.

571-HS-7 same same. Never used it in a handgun but its a good 12ga. load with shot weights of more than 1 1/4 oz.

Rocky,

Thank you for confirming that!

GH

For well over 20 years I loaded WW571 and WW AA20F1 wads for heavy field 20 gauge loads. The last time I went into a store to buy components I found out that both the 571/HS7 and the AA20F1 were discontinued. Sad day.

Thanks everyone for your help. I couldn't dig up anything on this powder but now I know it's interchangable with HS 7.

An after thought here. I recall that Winchester load data often had a warning included that stated Winchester(WW) powder should only be loaded with data provided by Winchester.